Butler was soon joining Annie Bell Mayfield’s Travelling Souls Spiritualist gospel caravan, touring throughout the US in his school holidays as a member of a group called the Northern Jubilee Singers and experiencing at first hand the sounds of the great gospel groups of the time, including the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Soul Stirrers, with Sam Cooke.
Two years later, having been persuaded by the record company to pursue a solo career, Butler achieved even greater success – No 1 in the R&B chart, No 7 in the pop chart – with the lovelorn He Will Break Your Heart, co-written with the record’s producer, Calvin Carter, and Mayfield, who also sang the distinctive high harmony part on the chorus.
Butler, who has died aged 85, had hits across three decades, with records that spanned the evolution of African-American popular music, from the gospel-influenced doo-wop of For Your Precious Love, aimed at the teenagers of the 1950s, through the suave balladry of Moon River and Make It Easy on Yourself in the 60s, to the sophisticated boudoir soul of I Want to Do It to You in the 70s.
When Bruce Springsteen released a collection of cover versions of soul classics in 2022, he included two of Butler’s best known songs: Only the Strong Survive, which gave the album its title, and Hey, Western Union Man,.
For their first single, released on a local label, Butler and two of the other members of the group, Richard and Arthur Brooks, wrote a ballad called For Your Precious Love.
